Age Confirmed for ‘Eve,’ Mother of All Humans

A maternal ancestor to all living humans called
mitochondrial Eve likely lived about 200,000 years ago, at roughly the same
time anatomically modern humans are believed to have emerged, a new review study
confirms.

The results are based on analyses of mitochondrial DNA.
Found in the energy-producing centers of cells, mitochondrial DNA is only
passed down the maternal line, and can be traced back to one woman.

However, this doesn’t mean she was the first modern woman,
rather it indicates that only her descendants survive to the present day.

“There is always some other female that predated
mitochondrial Eve, whose DNA didn’t make it up to modernity,” said Marek
Kimmel, a professor of statistics at Rice University. “So the age of the
mitochondrial Eve
is always less than the age of the true, first female modern human.”

But, regardless, all of the models produced estimates placing
this ancient mother’s age at around 200,000 years.